Due to an exceptional response to the Improvers Course run by The Braehead Curling Development Group in September 2014 we would like to offer all Braehead Members a further opportunity to get onto the ice after the festive period for this short Improvers Course which will be tailored to give you all some essential guidance and tips to improve your game.

World and European Ladies Curling Champions Binia Feltscher and her rink of Irene Schori, Franziska Kauffman and Christine Urech will be in action this weekend at the Braehead Curling Rink as they seek their second Glynhill Ladies International Championship title. The Feltscher rink won the event previously in 2013, but will have a tough task against the quality field assembled for this year’s Championship, the 8th year of the Glynhill Hotel sponsored event. In all 22 teams representing ten curling nations will compete over Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the prestigious Glynhill title, a counting event in the Champions Curling Tour and World Curling Federation rankings. Their main challengers could well be the experienced and exciting Russian quartet of Anna Sidorova, Margarita Fomina, Aleksandra Saitova and Ekaterina Galkina, 4th in the Sochi Winter Olympics and 2013 European Champions and silver medallists at this year Europeans in Champery. From opposite ends of the world come Team Red USA, skipped by Nina Roth whose rink are the current USA champions, and the young Korean rink of Eun Jung Kim who reached the semi-finals of last weekend’s CCT event, the Bernese Cup in Switzerland. A large Swiss presence will again be in evidence with experienced campaigners teams Tirinzoni, Jaggi, and Furbringer returning and new visitors Teams Hegner and Barbezat. Two other Russian teams have come over, Olga Zharkova’s experienced rink featuring a returning Lucy Privikova, and the new Russian Junior team of Evgeniya Demkina. Other challengers include Kristin Skaslien (Norway), from Sweden Cissi Ostlund, Towe Lundman and past Glynhill winner Anna Hasselborg, from Denmark Madeleine Dupont, and the German rink skipped by Daniela Driendl. Home hopes will rest with four of the Scottish performance rinks, skipped by Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Gina Aitken and Hazel Smith running Jennifer Martin’s rink. Hannah and Lauren bring some form with them, with Hannah winning the consolation event in Berne last weekend, and Lauren’s rink reaching the last eight of the 32 strong field. Play is in a round robin format with four sections, starting at 7.30am on Friday through six sessions, continuing on Saturday at8am with a further four sessions. The top two teams from each section go through to Sunday’s knock-out stages with the final scheduled for 2.30pm. Admission to the Braehead Curling Rink is free and the full draw is available on the website www.glynhillladiesinternational.co.uk

The semi-final and final games of the Scottish Mixed Doubles will be streamed live on Monday the 5th of January, right here on curlbraehead.co.uk. More information will be posted on our webcasting page, which can be found here.

The games will also be uploaded to our youtube channel shortly afterwards.